Prometheus

[Robert Donnell]

Prometheus, what can I say, I just saw it last night.

This is a prequel to the movie Alien, and they screwed it up at every turn.

So why am I bashing a SciFi/Fantasy of any sort when I love them so? Well this is the best example of what not to do. In Alien, Aliens, Alien vs Predator, etc we have a well established time line, life cycle for the alien creature which Prometheus utterly ignores. Furthermore the mistakes they made were unforgivable. (Bob breaks into song: “Unforgivable that’s what you are.”)

So here is my list of things that they should never have done:
A. Broke cannon, what had been established in prior movies.
B. Turned the movie into a “Lets bash the stupid Christians at every turn.”
C. Respecting the beliefs of a non-specified Pagan religion, you don’t get it both ways.
D. Broke the laws of physics, again.
E. Turned the movie into a “Lets bash the stupid Gun Owners at every turn.”
F. Out of control robots, it has been done too often.
G. High tech multi billion dollar spaceships manned by untrained illiterates.
H. Made Corporation owners, ultra-evil, ultra-rich, greedy, stupid murderers.

I swear to God it is as if you got together six each, socially awkward, Maoist, bad writers who had never seen the movie Alien and gave them cart blanch.

To be honest I am a very poor third rate hack writer who could benefit from a good proof reader, spell checker and a good Editor, but I can do better than this.

 

[ProfessorBrainfever]

"B. Turned the movie into a “Lets bash the stupid Christians at every turn.”
C. Respecting the beliefs of a non-specified Pagan religion, you don’t get it both ways. "

I honestly don't remember either of these things happening. Of course, not having any religion myself, it easily could have gone over my head.

 

[Robert Donnell]

Well the Protagonist has a discussion with her Father where a positive belief in some sort of afterlife is professed. Later she is told that it was a stupid idea to have “True Believers” on board and that they were merely employees not leaders of the expedition. It is what you would call a hostile environment.

For the record, I am an Atheist but my culture is that of a Middle Class American Christian and I take swipes at Christians as a nasty insult at my own values.

The bottom line ultimately is that as a viewer of the movie I feel like a nasty insult has been aimed at me by the Hollywood establishment who made the movie. My point is that as a writer one should never insult your readers.

 

[ProfessorBrainfever]

Later she is told that it was a stupid idea to have “True Believers” on board and that they were merely employees not leaders of the expedition. It is what you would call a hostile environment.

Well, yes...but the people who say those things aren't the most sympathetic of characters, and the Christian is clearly the hero of the piece.

If the villain of the film makes fun of something you like, that isn't necessarily a message the film is trying to portray.

 

[soulless]

So here is my list of things that they should never have done:
A. Broke cannon, what had been established in prior movies.
B. Turned the movie into a “Lets bash the stupid Christians at every turn.”
C. Respecting the beliefs of a non-specified Pagan religion, you don’t get it both ways.
D. Broke the laws of physics, again.
E. Turned the movie into a “Lets bash the stupid Gun Owners at every turn.”
F. Out of control robots, it has been done too often.
G. High tech multi billion dollar spaceships manned by untrained illiterates.
H. Made Corporation owners, ultra-evil, ultra-rich, greedy, stupid murderers.

I saw this a couple of weeks ago and quite enjoyed it for what it is, a fun and somewhat beautiful sci-fi flick.
but to your points...
A. I don't see how it broke any canon, except with the AVP movies which to be honest are best forgotten about. Everything can be easily fitted in with the 4 real Alien films.
B + C. I didn't see a problem with the religious aspect, though I can't see where the "christian bashing" comes in, even with the original ideas for why the engineers want to wipe us out that were removed from the film.
D. Pretty much all sci-fi fiction, in every form, does this for reason of drama. Its poetic licence, again no problem there.
E. Actually not a bad point
F. Androids are a staple of the Alien films but David seemed quite in control to me.
G. Some of the crew did seem to make quite odd decisions which have been picked up by lots of people around the world. Maybe some of this will be fixed in the impending directors cut on Blu-Ray (and hopefully DVD so I don't have to spend on a Blu-player just yet)
H. Again, this is a staple of the Alien films, and its the same company (well half of it, they haven't merged with Yutani yet) so what would you expect.

 

[dragonangel517]

I have started several drafts as a response to this, then abandoned them. I simply can't reply with out getting snarky, so I will just say this. It's a movie. A piece of fiction, nothing more. A piece of fiction someone else wrote, someone else's vision. I enjoyed every moment of it, and hope to see a sequel.

 

[Robert Donnell]

This is not a review of the movie, this is me the writer cringing at all the huge gaffs and rookie mistakes that never should have made it to the screen.

As a writer, I hear again that a good editor would have made the writer fix these mistakes before publishing and that the self published books are for this reason not worth reading high school quality pulp. Then I see mega-buck Hollywood movies do this low quality work and wonder where their editor is.

All the while I struggle to meet the minimum standards for publishing.

 

[Krieger]

I'll admit, the plot's a mess. But aside from some of the things which are purely a matter of taste (religion bashing, etc.), what are some of the actual story telling issues that you noticed, and how would you change them?

 

[Robert Donnell]

Well they changed the spacefaring Geiger-esque aliens into 100% human Greek Gods intent on the destruction of all humanity for no good reason. That added nothing to the plot, I would leave the ENGINEERS as truly alien Aliens.
Next they made the mistake of putting those same Greek Gods on Earth at many points in our past, well why didn’t they just wipe us out 35,000 years ago? I would dump that.
The hyper paranoid female has a medical machine that can not do surgery on human females, I would cut that out. Then it does it anyway.
I think that I would put back in the normal Alien Creature as the bioweapon.
I might spend some time on Character development. Why are some characters sniveling cowards (who would not have gone into space in the first place) and others Suicidal macho types? While there are some who would willingly sacrifice themselves for Humanity I am pretty sure that none of those crewmen knew the extent of the threat.
To be honest about it, I would cut every bit of dialog after landing and start over. I have a book that starts with a premise, what if UFOs are real? I started in one direction and deleted it to start over, same story just without unworkable characters. They should have done the same.

 

[JCFarnham]

I think I'm right in saying it had a different writer involved in it compared to the other films. That accounts for a lot of peoples problems with it. Frankly, as objective as we want to be, admit it, we're comparing it to Alien. By that criteria its going to be a bit off.

That being said, to me, modern motion picture writers aren't worth much. A lot of things have pretty wonky writing... And then you get someone like Joss Whedon or Steve Moffat who balance the equation.

As always scifi is sidelined. The golden days this isn't.. but I like to think its getting better with the success of the avengers and such.. sorry.. I like to HOPE.

 

[Alex97]

Went to see this a while ago and enjoyed it for what it was. I think I enjoyed the fact that my freind was cowering in the corner during most of the movie despite it not being scary.

As far as the unexplained stuff like the aliens/engineers suddenly want to destroy the humans it seems to me that they've left that sort of thing unanswred in order to make a sequal.

 

[Androxine Vortex]

Mom: How was the movie?
Me: Not that good
Mom: What was it about?
Me: I don't know

That movie did not explain anything! ARGH

 

[Bear]

I watched this movie on monday. I thought it was full of plot holes. The grand scope of the story was huge and I felt the narrative struggled to keep up with the overall theme. Geiger's work was amazing and the film was visually stunning. Overall, I would rate Prometheus three out of five stars. I hope they make a sequel so many of the plot holes and themes could be explained. I was also surprised with the religious theme that was present throughout the entire movie.

 

[Androxine Vortex]

I watched this movie on monday. I thought it was full of plot holes. The grand scope of the story was huge and I felt the narrative struggled to keep up with the overall theme. Geiger's work was amazing and the film was visually stunning. Overall, I would rate Prometheus three out of five stars. I hope they make a sequel so many of the plot holes and themes could be explained. I was also surprised with the religious theme that was present throughout the entire movie.

I agree about Gieger; he's one of my favorite artists.

 

[Steerpike]

I'll try to go see it soon. Based on people I know and have talked to first hand, I expect I'll like it just fine. Most of the complaints I've read aren't going to be big issues. If it entertains me for two hours, then great.

 

[Androxine Vortex]

I'll try to go see it soon. Based on people I know and have talked to first hand, I expect I'll like it just fine. Most of the complaints I've read aren't going to be big issues. If it entertains me for two hours, then great.

PROS
Fun to watch
Some parts are very grotesque and added to the horror aspect
Very good visual effects
Art design by Giger
Loved the aliens

CONS
Poor characters, very black and white
Left too many unanswered questions; didn't explain hardly anything
Ending

But go and see it for yourself and tell us what you think

 

[Robert Donnell]

Gieger is a sick puppy, I like that!

 

[Zephon]

I did not see "Christian bashing," in fact I thought the near-end of the movie actually had a pro-Christian or at least Pro-Theist message. I consider myself a "wobbly Catholic" and I actually enjoyed discussing the theological aspects presented in the film. (If the Engineers made humans, then is Christ truly the son of God?) I said yes, Christ is beyond humanity and the human form is a vessel for the soul, even if it's built by a race diabolical aliens I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I'm just trying to make the point that the immediate interpretation of anti-Christian can be broken down rather easily.

Other than that, I agree with what others said, Geiger really came through again. That man scares me.

The unanswered questions were irritating from a screenwriting standpoint, teasing the audience and leaving them unsatisfied. However, as with the theological implications, I found the discussion after the movie(we went to steak n' shake intriguing and fun.

I was sort of expecting it to blow my mind a bit, but alas, my mind remains intact. It could have been better, and I don't want to go into all the scientific flubs that got more annoying as the film progressed. (Taking your helmet off on an alien planet just because there's oxygen? wtf!)

There's a sequel rumored to be in the works which 20th Century Fox says may address many of the unanswered questions.

Now it's time to see Moonrise Kingdom...

 

[Flemming Hansen]

The movie wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great either. In the end I sat there asking myself "Well, what about this and that." I mean, there were so many things and elements that weren't explained. It will only receive a 3/6 stars from me.

 

[gavintonks]

well it is just a alien rehash everyone on board gets killed horribly at least 2 by having something sucking on them and exploding out afterwards, and the chick escapes

only new thing is Signorney Weaver is not in it, or her DNA

what amazes me is how far they park from everything, must get tired of walking
to me it lost the plot when dna disintegrating gray instead of green hulk man alien gets eaten by new version of little shop of horrors cactus, and when it falls on him pseudo sexual climax, writer needs therapy
why dont they just stick to the original formula make a tight alien movie that we have enjoyed a few times over

all they needed was the machine that carved the mayan calender and it will be complete